Day-by-Day Review: 2012 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe

Keys to cars with over 500 horsepower from the factory do not end up in my hands very often, so when they do I like to indulge — safely and lawfully, of course. This week 556 tire-shredding horsepower was handed to me in the form of a Cadillac CTS-V Coupe — a polarizing car with two purposes, going fast and burning gas.

Okay, perhaps this car wasn’t designed just to burn gas, but it seems to do so rather quickly as noted by Paul Williams in his test drive, and as noticed by me over the course of two days and 150 km, with already a half a tank of fuel used up. I suppose the CTS-V has a third purpose, that being luxury – this is a Cadillac, after all.

Click Image to Enlarge

If I had the choice I’d pick the sedan over the coupe, or perhaps even the wagon; although it is heavier and slower, what could be cooler than a 556-horsepower station wagon? But let’s get to this coupe, equipped with optional extras like yellow painted Brembo calipers, 19-inch aluminum wheels with satin graphite finish, a six-speed automatic (although I’d prefer the standard six-speed manual) and performance bucket seats with adjustable side bolsters.

This beast comes priced at just over $83,000 and you will either love it or hate it when you set your eyes on it. Reactions from the crowd here locally are all positive so far. The coupe sits lower than the sedan and actually shares very little with the four-door. It really is a unique vehicle and has a number of rarely seen features. For instance, the coupe is not equipped with door handles, as it uses an electronic button for access; a really cool centre-outlet exhaust with large twin round tips; and a unique grille that doubles front-end airflow as well as the chrome quotient.

A car like this is meant to be showy, and if you want to go fast it can do that as well. Stay tuned this week as I’ll be taking this monster to the track to find out what it really can do as our speed limits are just a little too low to experience this car properly.